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52 SMT Magazine • November 2014 of eight-hour cooling and heating cycles; after a four-hour cooling cycle at -55°C, the temper- ature in the burn-in chamber is pushed up to +70°C in a matter of a few minutes and held for a further four hours before plunging back down equally rapidly to start the next cooling cycle. These cooling/heating cycles are repeated nine times, amounting to three days. During this time the radio system experiences a non- stop exposure to rapid and extreme tempera- ture variations (Figure 5). If the plasma had damaged the electronics, the components would eventually have failed during this test. It would equally have become apparent if the coating's adhesion to the plastic would have not been sufficient. summary Test results were conclusive: The electronics functioned perfectly and the coating adhesion was long-time stable. Schneider said, "This plas- inès a. Melamies is a journalist based in germany who has writ- ten extensively on atmospheric plasma-jet technology. Tim Smith is vice president of engineering and operations of Plasmatreat North america and director of the Canadian Technol- ogy Center in ancaster, ontario. for more information, contact tim.smith@plasmatreat.com. Figure 5: The XK/FK 516 shortwave radio guarantees airborne communications. The FK 516 antenna tuning unit with built-in tuning control (left); the matching amplifier (right). (photo: rohde & Schwarz) arTiCle avionics: atmosPHeric PressUre PLasma case stUDy continues ma technology reduced the number of process steps and enhanced the quality of our product within a very short space of time." smt references: 1. ICAO 2013 Air Transport Results.